Sheldon Silver Pleads Not Guilty to Newest Charge

He appeared a bit more relaxed than he had at earlier courtroom appearances, his transition from longtime New York State Assembly speaker to criminal defendant perhaps becoming somewhat less jarring.

Assemblyman Sheldon Silver joked with a courtroom artist, heard a possibly apocryphal tale involving George Washington and, once again, pleaded not guilty through one of his lawyers.

The arraignment in Federal District Court in Manhattan on Tuesday capped a series of three pretrial court dates for Mr. Silver, a ritual extended by prosecutors’ decision last week to add a new charge to the original indictment: an accusation that Mr. Silver hid illegal gains through investments.

On Tuesday, Mr. Silver’s lawyers, Steven Molo and Joel Cohen, signaled their intention to file additional motions to dismiss based on the expanded indictment. Judge Valerie E. Caproni set a trial date for Nov. 2.

“I’m glad this is proceeding to trial,” Mr. Silver, a Democrat, said in the hallway. “I hope, I’m confident that I’ll be vindicated after a full hearing.”

Outside court, Mr. Silver was asked to respond specifically to the new charge, which accuses him of transferring more than $287,000 of what prosecutors say were the proceeds of his crimes into investments that were not available to the general public.

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Mr. Silver arrives for his arraignment.CreditBryan R. Smith for The New York Times

“Same way,” he replied languidly.

During the arraignment, Judge Caproni pressed for information on whether the indictment would expand yet again. “Can you give me a hint?” she asked prosecutors. “Do you think this is it?”

“At this point, the superseding indictment is the indictment,” an assistant United States attorney, Carrie H. Cohen, answered. But she added that the investigation was continuing and she would not rule out the possibility of new charges.

Mr. Silver appeared fatigued at the protracted legal maneuvering, but that did not deter a veteran courtroom sketch artist, Shirley Shepard, who inched closer and closer as Mr. Silver leaned back in a leather chair, waiting for the hearing to begin.

She tried to put him at ease by showing him her handiwork from an earlier court appearance, a drawing in which Mr. Silver’s thick neck and jowls made him look slightly rounder than he appears in person.

He perked up. “I’m too fat,” he said. “I gotta lose weight.”

It was only a prelude to her current project, which was a closer-up sketch than illustrators are typically allowed. As the court waited for Judge Caproni to arrive, Ms. Shepard sidled up to Mr. Silver.

“Look straight ahead,” she instructed gently, leaning on a wooden banister to his left.

“Well, you’re talking to me,” Mr. Silver protested.

The two had a history of sorts: After Mr. Silver’s first appearance in court, after his arrest in January, Ms. Shepard asked him to sign her sketch. He obliged.

On Tuesday, Ms. Shepard came prepared with talking points, in an attempt to emulate Gilbert Stuart, the portrait artist who, when he encountered difficulty putting George Washington at ease, engaged him by discussing horses. She told Mr. Silver an apparently fictitious story about why Stuart’s famous portrait of Washington went unfinished, explaining that Washington had walked out of the session after Stuart admitted to going to Canada during the Revolutionary War.

Mr. Silver was unmoved. But the former speaker was powerless to stop her as she forged ahead with her story and shaded in his gray hair.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A19 of the New York edition with the headline: Silver Pleads Not Guilty to Newest Charge. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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